On Wednesdays I typically work at our offices in St. Charles county, approximately a 1 hr. drive from home. This week was no different and in typical fashion I left the office shortly after 5:00pm, stopped for fuel and a soda, and headed for home.

As I traveled eastward, I realized that there was quite a thunderstorm between me and my destination. I marveled at the lightning bolts that were continually visible through the windshield. I don’t mean flashes of lighting, but jagged streaks visbile against the dark, ominous clouds.

Traffic was slow (as I expected), but somewhere near the midpoint of my commute the traffic completely stopped moving. I tuned to the traffic reports and learned that there was severe flooding along the highways, bus lines, and train routes all across the metro-east.

Since it didn’t appear that there was going to be any way around this traffic jam, I made a few phone calls and settled in for a long wait. Around 7:30pm, I finally made it across the Mississippi River. It was here that my knowledge (and lack of fear) about the various roads through the East St. Louis, Sauget, Cahokia area helped me out a ton. I peeled off the highway and headed through Sauget, IL and took a round-about path home.

I walked in the house at 8:07pm. If I’d waited on the highway any longer, there’s no telling how long it would have taken me to get home.

In any event, here’s the new lake in Illinois that was created in less than 10 minutes at the intersection of I-55/70 & I-64.